This weekend has been a hard one for a lady almost 12 weeks pregnant. We have painted the entire inside of our house, including 3 bedrooms, 3 baths, living room, dining room and kitchen. Walls, trim, doors, everything. Overwhelming! Thankfully we had help from a few friends and church members which really made it go by faster- I cannot thank them enough. I made sure to take breaks, but looking back on it, I did push myself too hard and didn't eat enough. Big no-no's for preggers. But I just wanted to get it done! Halfway through painting Stella's room, I thought about why we are doing this; to sell our house. Why are we selling our house? To move to a better school district for when baby girl goes to kindergarten next fall. I love our house, but honestly our neighborhood is in a crappy school district, so we need to move. Once we realized that we weren't comfortable with our kids playing with the other kids in the neighborhood or riding their bikes, we realized that it was time to go. We had NEVER planned on moving, but suddenly, we wanted to go like NOW. Hence all the house projects my husband is busting his ass to complete and all the cleaning, planning, organizing I am doing so we can trade up.
Some might say all of our hard work is a sacrifice for our kids. One of the many sacrifices parents make for their kids. I have honestly never thought of the changes we make in our life for our children as "sacrifices". We just do them because it feels like the best choice for our family as a whole. I cut back hours at work so I could be with my family more. Russell doesn't do a lot of side jobs on weekends so we can have family time. We miss social events (not too many :) ) not because we can't get a sitter, but because we want to hang out with our family instead. No, we cannot be as spontaneous as we used to be, no I cannot stay up past 10 anymore, no I can't sleep in till whenever, no I cannot drink wine when I'm pregnant. I don't care. None of these things feel like I'm losing anything because it was just a shift in priorities. I am not missing being out in a bar until 2am. Yes, I will totally enjoy having a big glass of wine and a rare steak after the twins are born, but I don't feel upset about not having them. I guess I just view things differently now, through the eyes of a mommy.
True sacrifice is what the parents of these twins have gone through. And they aren't even parents yet. They are going to be amazing!
Sometimes friends who don't have kids or a sibling will say something like "I feel bad that you have to (input anything to do with the kids) and can't do (input anything I would have done before kids but is now harder)." I always say the same thing...This is the life I wanted. We had our times drinking all night with friends. This is my kids' time now. I never see it as a sacrifice. Great post.
ReplyDeleteLove this post in a big way! Perfectly said!
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